


"You Had One Job, Tom."

by Anonymous



Category: Call the Midwife
Genre: "Tom. What the Fuck.", F/M, Gen, Let Trixie Say Fuck, Tom Should Be Scared, Trixie is a good friend, as in
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:28:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25625953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: “And then he tied this around my finger and asked me to marry him!” Barbara finished excitedly, opening the small box right as Trixie began to ask, “Tied…?” and trailed off when she saw the box’s contents.A withered, dried-up blade of grass.Granted, a blade of grass that was once certainly green and bendy enough to be tied into the loose shape of a ring that it now held, but still. A blade of grass.A record in Trixie’s brain scratched to a stop.OR;Trixie finally gets the full story of the engagement ring(s) from Barbara when she returns to Nonnatus, and Trixie has Words to say to the local vicar.
Relationships: Barbara Gilbert/Tom Hereward, Trixie Franklin & Barbara Gilbert, Trixie Franklin & Tom Hereward
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13
Collections: Anonymous





	"You Had One Job, Tom."

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize for any inaccuracies/inconsistencies with the show. My mom was using our Netflix account when I went to write this, so I had to just remember the order of things, and I've only seen a few middle seasons of the show so far (though I plan to fix that soon). 
> 
> This fic is essentially just me realizing that Trixie - Miss 'Get-Her-A-NEW-Ring, Tom' Trixie - must have had Thoughts when Barbara returned with a freaking LEAF on her ring finger. (I love Tom, but I'm right.)
> 
> Enjoy!

“Ah,” Trixie sighed contentedly as she lay down on her bed back at Nonnatus house for the first time in months, her luggage strewn across the floor. “How lovely. While I don’t believe I’d trade my time in South Africa for anything,” she mused, “I must admit that I’m quite excited to be back.”

“You’ll never take indoor plumbing for granted again, I hope,” Barbara teased lightly, sitting down on the other bed in the room as Trixie propped herself up on one arm and glanced over with a smirk. 

“Certainly not,” Trixie agreed with a small laugh before swinging her legs over the edge of the bed so she was facing Barbara. “Now, I do believe you’ve kept me waiting long enough!” She declared. “Come now, show me the ring!”

A smile and a blush competed for space on Barbara’s face as she obliged, holding her left hand out for inspection as Trixie took her hand gently and began to rotate it with approving eyes. 

“Oh,  _ very _ nice,” she praised as light caught the ring just so and caused it to gleam. “I must admit, I was a titch worried that Tom might drop the ball on the engagement ring, but that is an absolutely beautiful piece of jewelry,” Trixie winked conspiratorially. 

Barbara perked up at Trixie’s comment, raising her right hand to cover her mouth as she laughed at a memory. “Oh, well,” she giggled, “this isn’t the ring he proposed with, as I’m sure you remember.”   
  
Trixie cocked her head to one side, a small frown forming on her lips as she tried to recall what Barbara was talking about. “To be completely honest, most everything about that trip blurred together,” she admitted with a remorseful smile. “I can’t remember seeing the ring when you said that Tom proposed - I believe my mind was fully occupied at the time, worrying about my patient’s recovery from the caesarian and trying to work out how to stay at the clinic for longer than I originally intended.”

“You  _ were _ quite busy,” Barabara allowed with an easy, forgiving smile. “I don’t blame you one bit. And besides, now I get to tell the story once more,” she laughed, and Trixie grinned in response. “Just one moment, I’ll be right back.”

“Pardon? No, Barbara!” Trixie complained as her friend rose from the bed and made her way towards the door. “You can’t just promise me a story and then leave! I demand details!”

“And you’ll get them, Trix, I promise,” Barbara called back consolingly as she entered the hallway. “I just need to grab something from my room to tell the story!”

Trixie gave a small huff of exaggerated impatience, but the small smile that pulled up at the edges of her pursed lips remained in place as Barbara returned with a small aluminum box in her hand and sat down on the bed once more. 

“Well?” Trixie demanded playfully. 

“Oh, Trixie, it was so lovely,” Barbara sighed, trying and failing to not grin broadly. “I found Tom in this little clearing up above the men laying all the pipes across Mister Starke’s land to Hope Clinic. I’d just come to find him and update him on the progress, and all of a sudden he gets this - this almost  _ frantic _ look in his eyes,” Barbara laughed, and Trixie softened, a gentler smile crossing her features at her friend’s happiness. “And then he said - oh, let me see if I can remember the exact words he used,” Barbara stopped for a moment to think before continuing, smile growing even wider. 

“Ah, yes, he said: ‘Barbara, I want you to have this. No one’s hand ever touched it but mine -” at that, Trixie smiled - “and it’s as though it was just growing here, waiting for this moment.” Trixie’s smile became a bit confused, but Barbara continued on, now thoroughly engrossed in her own retelling of the story. 

“And then he tied this around my finger and asked me to marry him!” Barbara finished excitedly, opening the small box right as Trixie began to ask, “Tied…?” and trailed off when she saw the box’s contents. 

A withered, dried-up blade of grass. 

Granted, a blade of grass that was once certainly green and bendy enough to be tied into the loose shape of a ring that it now held, but still. A blade of grass. 

Trixie frowned.

Barbara was going on and on about how Tom called her beautiful as he proposed, how she’ll treasure this little piece of South Africa for the rest of her life, but Trixie hardly noticed as she interrupted her friend. “He proposed to you with a  _ blade of grass? _ ” She demanded, looking up at a startled Barbara with unusually sharp eyes.

“I - well, yes,” Barbara admitted after a moment’s hesitation. Noticing Trixie’s growing frown, she hastily added, “But Tom  _ did _ say there would be a gold ring when we got back to England! And a diamond, if I wanted it!” 

The furrow between Trixie’s brows softened at Barbara’s defense. After all, she supposed, they  _ had _ all been in Africa when Trixie had encouraged Tom to propose and told him to get Barbara a nice ring, all in one conversation. Hope clinic hadn’t been at all close to any sort of jeweler’s, and using their car to make a trip into a city that sold engagement rings would have been a waste of gasoline (and a gamble with the truck’s ever-failing health). 

Still, Trixie had thought that Tom would at least wait until they were all back in Poplar to propose, so when she heard that the pair had gotten engaged so soon, she had figured that Tom might have already had a ring or plan in place. Having been engaged to the man before, though, Trixie wryly reminded herself that  _ she _ of all people should be privy to Tom’s impulsive streak. 

So, Tom had proposed with a… long piece of grass. Not ideal, Trixie supposed, but accompanied by a promise to remedy the temporary ring with a real one when back in England, not the worst proposal ever - and Barbara, bless her soul,  _ did _ seem so incredibly happy. 

“Hm. I’ll allow it, then,” Trixie said with a sigh and a begrudging smile that was only half-teasing. Barbara lit up once more, and Trixie smirked as she fought not to roll her eyes fondly at the girl sitting in front of her. “Now, let me see the ring once more? The _real_ one,” she clarified light-heartedly, earning a small laugh from Barbara as she once more extended her hand. 

A moment passed in happy silence as Trixie once more inspected how the ring looked on Barbara’s finger. “I must say,” she mused after a minute, “Tom did do quite a good job once you got back to England. The style suits you very well, and the ring fits perfectly.”

“Oh, Tom didn’t pick this out,” Barbara laughed easily, and warning bells started to ring in Trixie’s mind. 

“Oh?” She questioned with a raised eyebrow. “You accompanied him to the jeweler's, then, and told him which you’d like him to buy for you?”

“Well, no,” Barbara admitted with slight hesitation, cheeks flushed ever so slightly as she admitted, “I actually bought the ring myself.”

A record in Trixie’s brain scratched to a stop. “You. Bought the ring. Yourself?”

The question came out almost like a statement, and Barbara nodded in confirmation. “Yes. I’ve been saving up my wages for quite a while, and Tom was really getting quite stressed about being able to afford a ring.” Trixie’s face must have betrayed some of her inner thoughts, because Barbara continued hurriedly, rushing to defend her fiance. “It really is quite all right! He so wanted me to have a nice ring, Trix, but you know how little his vicar’s wages are, and the entire dilemma was upsetting him greatly, so I decided to help us both out! And, this way, I got to choose my own ring!”

“...It really _is_ quite a lovely ring,” Trixie finally managed past her frustration at Tom. Barbara looked so happy, and it really wouldn’t do to upset her with misplaced anger. “I’m so happy for you, Barbara. Truly.”

Barbara softened at that, a small, genuine smile appearing on her face as she switched beds to give Trixie a hug that she easily returned. “Thank you, Trix. It means more than you know.”

Trixie just smiled and hummed in acknowledgement, and tried to remember where Tom Hereward usually was at that time of day. 

* * *

She found him alone as he worked to set up Sunday School in the community center, grabbing chairs from a rack and dragging them to their places before unfolding them. 

A small, petty part of her was glad he was alone. 

Trixie’s kitty heels clicked against the linoleum as she entered the room, drawing Tom’s attention from his current task and pulling his face into a wide smile. “Trixie!” He called in greeting, striding across the room to meet her. He nearly leaned in for a hug - still almost instinctual, though no longer anything but platonic - but settled for gripping her hands in his instead. Tom squeezed briefly with the reverence of someone who’s not seen a good friend in a long time before leaning back and placing his hands in his trouser pockets. “How was the rest of your work at the clinic? And the journey back? Not too strenuous, I hope-”

Part of Trixie wanted to stand there and tell Tom all about the outrageously wealthy couple who stayed in the cabin next to hers on the trip back, or how she’d successfully performed a number of caesarian surgeries after the rest of the Nonnatus crew had left, or even just ask him how  _ he _ was doing (after all, it is incredibly difficult to love someone for so long and not still care deeply for them even once everything is over). But, she reminded herself strictly, she was here on  _ business _ . On behalf of  _ Barbara _ (never mind that she might actually protest at this - it was the principle of the matter, and Trixie would hear nothing else). 

And so, with the sternest glare she could muster, Beatrix Franklin pulled away from Tom, planted her arms decidedly upon her hips, and huffed, “Thomas _Hereward_!”

The vicar blinked, surprised at having been cut off so abruptly and by such a scolding tone. “I - yes?”

“You had  _ one job _ ! I gave you  _ one job! _ ” Trixie cried out exasperatedly, throwing her hands up in the air with her index fingers extended to emphasize her point. “ _ One _ _!_ ”

Tom blinked again, and Trixie found that his oblivious act was starting to grate on her nerves when he asked, “Trix, I’ve no idea what you’re on about. Are you quite all right?”

“No,” Trixie retorted, narrowly stopping herself from stomping her foot like a child as she crossed her arms over her chest. “I am  _ not _ ! What was the  _ one thing _ I told you to do for Barbara when it came to the ring?”

Tom’s confusion morphed into some unique mixture of embarrassment, regret, and exasperation as he realized what she was referring to. “Trixie - ,” he began with a sigh, only to get cut off once more by the blonde in front of him. 

“Don’t you  _ ‘Trixie’ _ me!” She scolded, pointing an accusatory finger at him as she watched the realization slowly dawn upon Tom that this wasn’t a fight he’d be able to easily win. “When I said to get Barbara a brand new ring, I didn’t mean so new that it was still  _ in the ground _ when you found it! Grass, Tom!” Trixie cried. “Grass!”

“Well - what did you expect me to do?” Tom demanded defensively, crossing his arms over his chest with a huff. “We were in the middle of nowhere! How was I supposed to get  _ any _ kind of ring, much less a  _ new  _ one? And one I could afford with the small stipend I’d brought with me?”

“Oh my -  _ Tom _ ,” Trixie stressed, rubbing at her eyes carefully so her mascara didn’t smudge. “Just because you realized you wanted to propose didn’t mean you had to do it  _ right then _ .” 

A perplexed, almost indignant look crossed Tom’s face. “What? Well, when would you propose I do it, then?”

“Oh, I don’t know!” Trixie cried, spreading her hands out in front of her dramatically. “Maybe when we get back to England, with proper jewelers and your savings to draw from for a ring!”

Tom looked positively dumbstruck at that idea, as if the thought had never occurred to him before. “...Oh,” he eventually responded lamely, shoulders sagging slightly as the possibility finally dawned on him that he could have - heaven forbid -  _ waited _ . 

His expression drew an involuntary bark of laughter from Trixie, who’d never seen the man quite so befuddled before in all the time she’d known him. The sound caused Tom to look up, regretful and hesitant. “I haven’t messed it all up, have I, Trixie?” He asked, pleading for reassurance. 

“Well,” Trixie sighed, far too much fondness leaking into her voice than she’d anticipated, “I’ll admit I’ve never quite heard of the  _ girl _ paying for the ring,” she admitted. Seeing Tom’s crestfallen look at her words, she amended, “Though that’s not to say that it’s wrong for the two of  _ you."  _

Tom sighed and sat down in one of the chairs he’d just set up, causing it to squeak across the floor ever so slightly. “I should have waited,” he groaned, putting his head down into his hands, elbows resting on his knees. “I should have thought on it longer, waited until we got back to Poplar, and saved up enough money to buy an actual ring to propose to Barbara with. She  _ deserves _ that much.”

“She does,” Trixie agreed easily, walking over to Tom to pat his back reassuringly and smile knowingly at his groan. “But, Tom, you found a girl who took your silly little blade-of-grass proposal - who treasures it, and keeps it safe in a little tin in her room, and takes it out to show her friends and cherishes it with stars in her eyes,” Trixie reassured Tom when he took his head out of his hands and looked over his shoulder at her as she continued to gently pat his shoulder. 

“You found a girl who shares your beliefs and love for them, who finds the bright side in everything, who’s willing to buy her own engagement ring to make her fiance less stressed and despondent. A girl who knows your impulsive tendencies - experienced them first-hand, even - and smiles and calls them ‘charming’.” Both Tom and Trixie laugh at that, the entire thing being so very  _ Barbara _ that they simply cannot help it. 

Tom sighs again, though this one holds less regret, and more hope. “I really wish I could give her the world, Trixie,” he admits in a murmur, the confession somehow filling up the entire room and pulling a knowing, fond smile onto Trixie’s lips. 

“I know, Tom,” she assured him, giving his back one last pat before starting to walk slowly towards the door. 

“But you know what the good thing is?” Trixie called over her shoulder as she approached the exit, looking back with twinkling eyes before Tom could even respond. 

“You’ll have your whole life to do just that.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I try to respond to all comments on my fics, but those are for series that I'm all caught up with, and since I don't want to spoil myself for CtM episodes that I've yet to see, please try to keep any spoilers past this episode (Christmas Special between seasons 5 and 6) out of the comments, or I'll be a big sad. 
> 
> Additionally, I appreciate anyone who might want to subscribe to me, but I will not be giving my main username out to anyone on this fic (and, either way, it's all anime-type stuff so far). 
> 
> Thank you so very much for reading! Drink water and stay safe!


End file.
